Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Review

After winning Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Actress for Frances McDormand, Best Supporting Actor for Sam Rockwell, and Best Screenplay for writer/director Martin McDonagh at the Golden Globes last week, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is released in the UK on Friday 12th January.

It is highly deserving of its plaudits, particularly for McDormand and Rockwell. I was lucky enough to see it at the London Film Festival in 2017 and my review of the film that all the cool kids are simply referring to as 'Three Billboards' is up at Starburst Magazine here. 

This is a film I can't wait to see again and I recommend you get down to a cinema to see it asap. 

Here's a snippet:

'Seven months after the rape and murder of her daughter, Mildred Hayes (McDormand) has had enough of the inertia of the police investigation. Seven months with no answers and no arrests. With the police having given up, Mildred decides to pay for a series of messages to be plastered high on three disused billboards outside her home. This most public of provocations, and the personal prodding of the town’s Chief Willougby begins a feud between Mildred and the police department, not helped by Mildred’s foul mouth and stubborn, but righteous refusal to accept that the cops could give up on catching her daughter’s killer...'

Read more at Starburst Magazine. 

More reviews from LFF 2017

Golden Globe Nominees 2016: Just the Movie Categories!

The nominees are in! Ricky Gervais is warming up his wicked tongue. The stars of Hollywood are almost certainly hitting the bottle already. Or crying in a corner. Depends if they made this list really.

I'm most pleased to see the excellent Son of Saul in the foreign film category, Inside Out in the animated movie category (obvs!) and Aaron Sorkin getting some love for the Steve Jobs screenplay.

The other big news is that George Miller is up for best director and Mad Max: Fury road has a shot at taking Best Drama Film. How cool would that be? Won't happen, but it's nice to see them get a nomination.

Also a special shout out for Alicia Vikander for getting a nomination for her performance in Ex Machina. It's just nice to see Alex Garland's film represented in the nominees in some way really. Especially after it did so well at the British Independent Film Awards recently.

Without further ado, here's the movie nominees for the Golden Globes 2016 which will be held on January 10th:

UPDATE: Winners now written in large font!

Best original score

Carol

The Danish Girl

The Hateful Eight
Steve Jobs

The Revenant

Best Foreign Film

The Brand New Testament

The Club

The Fencer

Mustang 
Son of Saul

Best Animated Movie

Anomalisa

The Good Dinosaur 
Inside Out

The Peanuts Movie

Shaun the Sheep

Best Song

Love Me Like You Do - 50 Shades of Grey

One Kind of Love - Love and Mercy

See you Again - Furious 7

Simple Song No.3 - Youth

Writing’s on the Wall - Spectre

Best Screenplay

Room

Spotlight

The Big Short
Steve Jobs

The Hateful Eight

Best Actor Musical/Comedy

Christian Bale - The Big Short

Steve Carell - The Big Short

Matt Damon - The Martian

Al Pacino - Danny Collins

Mark Ruffalo - Infinitely Polar Bear

Best Director

Todd Haynes -Carol

Alejandro Inarritu - The Revenant

Tom McCarthy - Spotlight

George Miller - Mad Max Fury Road

Ridley Scott - The Martian

Best Motion Picture Musical/Comedy

The Big Short

Joy

The Martian

Spy

Trainwreck

Best Supporting Actress

Jane Fonda - Youth

Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight

Helen Mirren - Trumbo

Alicia Vicander - Ex Machina

Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs

Best Supporting Actor

Paul Dano - Love and Mercy

Idris Elba - Beasts of No Nation

Mark Rylance - Bridge of Spies

Michael Shannon - 99 Homes

Sylvester Stallone - Creed

Best Actor Drama

Bryan Cranston - Trumbo

Leonardo Dicaprio - The Revenant

Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs

Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl

Will Smith - Concussion

Best Actress Musical/Comedy

Jennifer Lawrence - Joy

Melissa McCarthy - Spy

Amy Schumer -Trainwreck

Maggie Smith - The Lady in the Van

Lily Tomlin - Grandma

Best Actress Drama

Cate Blanchett - Carol

Brie Larson - Room

Rooney Mara - Carol

Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn

Alicia Vikander The Danish Girl

Best Film Drama

Carol

Mad Max Fury Road

The Revenant

Room

Spotlight

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler do the 2015 Golden Globes Opening Monologue

Just had to share this. If you haven't seen that Clooney joke yet, get watching!

Golden Globes Gambling

Once a year, I like to have a little flutter when it comes to awards season. OK maybe two or three times a year as I'll probably throw a tiny bit of cash down on the BAFTAS and the Oscars. Anyway, the point is I'm not an addict. I just like to liven awards season up with the potential of winning a little money. I'm too stingy and scared and skint to throw down any real money so I keep things very low key, only betting very small amounts.

Last year I came out a tiny bit up after betting on a couple of the awards ceremonies, but this year I'm trying not to play it so safe by betting on a couple of outsiders that may not be the favourites but still have good chances of winning.

I placed my bets at William Hill this year on the following nominees in the following categories:

Julianne Moore - Maps To The Stars @ 12/1 Best Actress - Musical/Comedy

Stake: £1.00 Potential Returns: £13.00

Amy Adams - Big Eyes @ 10/11 Best Actress - Musical/Comedy

Stake: £1.00 Potential Returns: £1.91

Ralph Fiennes - The Grand Budapest Hotel @ 9/1 Best Actor - Musical/Comedy

Stake: £1.00 Potential Returns: £10.00

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Birdman @ 11/2 Best Director

Stake: £1.00 Potential Returns: £6.50

Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything @ 1/3 Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama

Stake: £2.00 Potential Returns: £2.67

Boyhood @ 1/6 Best Motion Picture - Drama

Stake: £2.00 Potential Returns: £2.33

Felicity Jones - The Theory of Everything @ 16/1 Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama

Stake: £1.00 Potential Returns: £17.00

Highlighted are my winners.

TOTAL STAKE £9.00

TOTAL POTENTIAL WINNINGS (I can dream): £53.41

ACTUAL TOTAL: £6.91

What do you reckon are my chances? Will I get my £9 back at least or will I lose it all?

Golden Globe Nominations 2015 for Films

It's time for the golden balls to come out shining again. The Golden Globe nominations were announced today with Birdman soaring above the rest with 7 nominations spanning a range of categories. Selma, The Imitation Game and Boyhood are close behind, each with 5 nominations and just behind them are The Theory of Everything and The Grand Budapest Hotel and Gone Girl, each with 4. Others worth a mention are Foxcatcher, Into the Woods and Big Eyes which all managed to land 3 nominations each, while St Vincent and Annie scraped 2 each.

Critics favourites Whiplash, Interstellar and Nightcrawler each have a single nomination to their name with the exclusion of Whiplash from the Best Picture category most likely to cause a stir. I'm also pissed to see that White God isn't up for best foreign language film but hopefully this is just due to its release date in North America. I guess Angelina Jolie will be heartbroken over the complete snub of her second effort as director, Unbroken, which looked like a proper piece of awards bait.

Of course UK audiences will just have to sit here fuming as we have to wait until 2015 for the likes of Birdman, Selma, The Theory of Everything, Into the Woods and Whiplash to be released. At least some of these will have been released by the time Amy Poehler and Tina Fey host the show on Sunday January 11th.

As usual, awards season is the only time of year that I decide to find out what it is like to have a gambling problem. I usually place some bets on the Globes and the Oscars and last year I lost some money on the Globes but won it back (with a little profit) on the Oscars. Hopefully I can continue my tiny little winning streak this year!

At least I've seen a fair few of these this year including Boyhood, Foxcatcher, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Pride, St Vincent, Gone Girl, Interstellar etc etc. As long as I get into early screenings of some of the others, I'll be very happy!

Here are the nominees in full:

Best film

Boyhood

Foxcatcher (click for review)

The Imitation Game

Selma

The Theory of Everything

Best director

Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Ava Duvernay - Selma

David Fincher - Gone Girl

Alejandro González Iñárritu - Birdman

Richard Linklater - Boyhood

Best screenplay

Wes Anderson - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl

Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Armando Bo - Birdman

Richard Linklater - Boyhood

Graham Moore - The Imitation Game

Best actor, drama

Steve Carell - Foxcatcher (click for review)

Benedict Cumberbatch - The Imitation Game

Jake Gyllenhaal - Nightcrawler (click for review)

David Oyelowo - Selma

Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything

Best actress, drama

Jennifer Aniston, Cake

Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything

Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl

Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best comedy or musical

Birdman

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Into the Woods

Pride

St. Vincent (click for review)

Best actress, comedy or musical

Amy Adams - Big Eyes

Emily Blunt - Into the Woods

Helen Mirren - The Hundred-Foot Journey

Julianne Moore - Maps to the Stars

Quvenzhané Wallis - Annie

Best actor, comedy or musical

Ralph Fiennes - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Michael Keaton - Birdman

Bill Murray - St. Vincent

Joaquin Pheonix - Inherent Vice

Christoph Waltz - Big Eyes

Best supporting actor

Robert Duvall - The Judge

Ethan Hawke - Boyhood

Edward Norton - Birdman

Mark Ruffalo - Foxcatcher (click for review)

JK Simmons - Whiplash

Best supporting actress

Patricia Arquette - Boyhood

Jessica Chastain - A Most Violent Year

Keira Knightley - The Imitation Game

Emma Stone - Birdman

Meryl Streep - Into the Woods

Best score

Alexandre Desplat - The Imitation Game

Johann Johannsson – The Theory of Everything

Trent Reznor – Gone Girl

Antonio Sanchez - Birdman

Hans Zimmer – Interstellar (click for review)

Best song

Big Eyes – Big Eyes (Lana Del Ray)

Glory – Selma (John Legend, Common)

Mercy Is – Noah (Patty Smith, Lenny Kaye)

Opportunity – Annie

Yellow Flicker Beat (Lorde) – Hunger Games, Mockingjay Pt 1 (click for review)

Best animation

Big Hero 6

The Book of Life

The Boxtrolls

How to Train Your Dragon 2

The LEGO Movie

Best foreign language film

Force Majeure

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

Ida

Leviathan

Tangerine Manderin

What do you think? Got any tips for my gambling addiction? Where's the easy money at and who are the outsiders that are worth a punt?